Arab theater asks EU for funds after Israel cancels subsidies over play about terrorist

An Arab theater in Haifa plans to appeal to the European Union for funding its productions after Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced that the state would no longer subsidize its activities in protest of a play that he claimed glorifies terrorism, Channel 2 reported on Saturday.

The Al-Midan Theater made headlines in recent weeks after Bennett ordered a halt to funding due to the staging of A Parallel Time, a play based on the life of Walid Daka, an Israeli Arab who is serving a life sentence in prison for the murder of IDF soldier Moshe Tamam.

The artistic community in Israel has been up in arms over Culture Minister Miri Regev’s vow to slash state subsidies to cultural institutions that “delegitimize” the state.